Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov - Russian writer, poet, translator and entomologist. He spent most of his life in exile; many works were written in foreign languages ​​and translated into Russian by the author himself. Nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature. It is considered one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.
Biography
Vladimir Nabokov was born on April 22, 1899 in St. Petersburg. Father - a famous lawyer and politician Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov. Since childhood, the future writer spoke fluently in three languages, in addition to Russian, the family actively used French and English.
While studying at the famous Tenishevsky school, he became interested in entomology. In 1916 he received a huge inheritance from his uncle on his mother's side and published his first poetry collection with his own money. After the revolution, he moved to the Crimea, where he continued to publish his compositions and write plays for the local theater.
After the capture of Crimea by the Bolsheviks, the family moved to Berlin, and Nabokov went to study at Cambridge University. He continued to write and began to translate foreign works into Russian.
After the murder of his father in 1922 he moved to Berlin, where under the pseudonym Sirin published several collections of poems and nine novels in Russian. In 1936, due to the political situation, Nabokov moved to Paris, and from there in 1940 he moved to the United States.
Over the next twenty years, he lectured on Russian literature at US universities. Since 1938 he wrote prose in English, however, for a long time the novels of the writer were not successful. Everything changed after the publication of the novel "Lolita", which instantly caused a wave of discussions around the world and brought Nabokov an impressive fortune.
In 1960 he moved to Switzerland, where he continued to write until his death in 1977.
Quotes from Prose
Vladimir Nabokov is one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. His novels Lolita, Luzhin's Defense, Obscura Chambers, and Invitation to Execute are still being studied at universities and read with pleasure. Many of Nabokov’s quotes are known even to people unfamiliar with the author’s works:
I am an American writer, born in Russia, educated in England, where I studied French literature before moving to Germany for fifteen years. ... My head speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear speaks French ...
My desires are very modest. Portraits of the head of state should not exceed the size of a postage stamp.
Truth is one of the few Russian words that does not rhyme with anything.
Not guided tours come to God, but lonely travelers.
All of these are quotes from one short introduction to the anniversary edition of Lolita.
Here are a few quotes from Vladimir Nabokov from his early work, Potato Elf.
Sentimentality should be distinguished from sensitivity. A sentimental person can be extremely cruel in private life. A sensitive person is never cruel.
My personal tragedy, which cannot, which should not be anyone else's concern, is that I had to leave my native language, native tongue, my rich, infinitely rich and obedient Russian, for the sake of second-class English.
The novel "Lolita", if desired, can literally be pulled into quotes, however, you can try to cite at least some of the most witty and beautifully formulated passages.
I sobbed again, drunk from the impossible past.
A change of scenery - a traditional fallacy, on which doomed love and incurable consumption are hoping?
Of course, I could not kill her, as some had expected. I, you see, loved her. It was love at first sight, at the last glance, from the eternal glance.
I knew that I had fallen in love with Lolita forever; but I also knew that she would not forever remain Lolita.
A fog of tenderness enveloped mountains of longing.
Another novel by Vladimir Nabokov known to many is “Luzhin's Defense”. Here are some highlights from there:
Lacking mercury under the influence of the environment fell lower and lower. And even the polar bears in the Zoological Garden shivered, finding that the management had gone too far.
The future vaguely seemed to him as a silent embrace, lasting endlessly, in the happy darkness, where they pass, fall into the beam and hide again, laughing and swaying, various toys of this world.
Further, several quotes from Nabokov from another famous novel - "Camera Obscura".
His education was variegated, his mind was tenacious and insightful, his desire to play his fellow man was irresistible.
Magda had exactly the dream of a charming essay, the cheeky naturalness of nudity, as if she had long been accustomed to running naked along the seaside of his dreams.
Death, he said, still seems to me to be just a bad habit, which nature can no longer eradicate within itself.
Very often, Nabokov, a professional entomologist, introduced into his works the image of a butterfly, which served as a way of life, the opposite of death in the writer's art world. Here is a quote from Nabokov’s Christmas story:
Sleptsov closed his eyes, and for a moment it seemed to him that he was completely understandable, earthly life was completely naked - woeful to horror, humiliatingly aimless, barren, devoid of miracles ... And at the same moment something clicked - a subtle sound - as if burst stretched rubber. Sleptsov opened his eyes and saw: a broken cocoon is sticking out in a biscuit box, and a black wrinkled creature the size of a mouse quickly crawls up a wall over a table. It stopped, grabbing six shaggy black legs on the wall, and it began to tremble strangely. It hatched because a man, exhausted from grief, carried the tin box to himself, into a warm room, it escaped because heat penetrated through the tight silk of the cocoon, it waited so long for this, so intensely gained strength, and now, breaking out, slowly and wonderfully grew up. Crumpled shreds, velvet fringes unfolded slowly, fan veins growing stronger, filled with air. It became winged imperceptibly, just as a husky face imperceptibly becomes beautiful. And the wings — still weak, still wet — all continued to grow, straighten, then turned to the limit God had set for them — and on the wall there was already — instead of a lump, instead of a black mouse — a huge night butterfly, an Indian silkworm that flies like a bird, at dusk, around the lanterns of Bombay. And then the prostrated wings, bent at the ends, dark velvet, with four mica windows, sighed in a burst of gentle, delightful, almost human happiness.
Quotes from Poetry
Vladimir Nabokov began his journey in literature precisely as a poet, however, the success of his prose works was overshadowed by his poetry collections and now many people who are superficially familiar with his work may not even know that Nabokov wrote poetry in addition to prose. However, many of his works were quite popular and can be found on social networks even without mentioning the name of the author. For example, here is a poem:
Live it. Do not complain, not numbers
no years past, no planets
and slender thoughts will merge
the answer is one: there is no death.
Be merciful. Do not demand kingdoms
Thank you all thankfully.
Pray to a cloudless sky
and cornflowers in wavy rye.
Without despising the dreams of seasoned ones,
try to create the best.
In birds, in tremulous and small,
learn, learn to bless!
Here are a few other, less well-known, but no less beautiful poetic quotes by Nabokov:
We were enclosed in a crystal ball
and you and I flew past the stars
swiftly, silently we glided
from shine to shine blissfully blue.
And there was no past, no purpose;
delight united us of eternity;
hugging in heaven, we flew
blinded by the smiles of the stars.
But someone sigh broke our crystal ball,
stopped our fiery impulse
and the kiss was interrupted by our beginningless,
and threw us into the captive world, tearing us apart.
And on earth we forgot a lot:
only occasionally remembered in a dream
and our awe, and the awe of stardust,
and a wonderful rumble trembling in the sky.
Though we are sad and joyfully
your face among all the beautiful faces
I can recognize by this starry dust
remaining at the tips of the eyelashes.
Another poem:
From sight, babble, smile
deep in soul sometimes
the light lights up unshakable
a large star rises.
And to live is not shameful and not painful;
the moment you learn to appreciate
and the words of one are pretty,
to explain everything earthly.
And one more poetic excerpt from the work of Vladimir Nabokov:
Let me dream ... You are the first suffering
and my last happiness
I feel movement and breathing
of your soul ... I feel it
how distant and trembling singing ...
Let me dream, oh clear string
let it cry and believe in rapture
that life, like you, is just full of music.
In general, Nabokov’s poetic legacy is enormous; based on these quotes, you can only make an approximate idea of ​​his style, circle of themes and direction in poetry. For a more detailed acquaintance, it is worth reading at least a couple of poetry collections by Vladimir Vladimirovich.
Quotes from the interview
In addition to quotes from the books of Nabokov and his poetry collections, also a lot of interesting things can be found in his interview for various publications. Here is what the writer said about the difficult situation with his linguistic identity:
I do not think in any language. I think in images. I do not believe what people think in languages. Thinking, they do not move their lips. Only an illiterate person of a certain type moves his lips while reading or thinking. No, I think in images, and only sometimes the Russian or English phrase will be foamed by the brain wave, but that’s probably all.
Here are a few quotes from Nabokov about creativity:
Only ambitious nonsense and beautiful-minded mediocrity display their drafts.
I think that some people write well in Russian even now. For example, Mandelstam, who died in a concentration camp, was a wonderful poet, but literature cannot flourish when the human imagination is limited.
All, at least something worthwhile writers, are comedians. I am not P.G. Wodehouse. I am not a clown, but show me a great writer without a sense of humor.
This is how Nabokov spoke of his homeland:
I will never return, for the simple reason that the whole of Russia that I need is always with me: literature, language and my own Russian childhood. I will never be back. I will never give up. And in any case, the grotesque shadow of the police state will not be scattered during my lifetime.
And this quote allows you to learn more about the great writer from a human point of view:
What disgusts me is easy to list: stupidity, tyranny, crime, cruelty, popular music. My addictions are the strongest known to man: writing and catching butterflies.
The creative heritage of Vladimir Nabokov is huge, besides, any person interested in literature should get acquainted with the famous “Lectures on Russian Literature”, which the writer read for many years at US universities.